Book Review: Stretch By Neal Pollack

My reading lately has been pretty utilitarian. In the few minutes after my head hits the pillow at night, and before I drop off into a mommy coma, I read a few pages out of a parenting or homeschooling book, or the Bible.

When I read the blurb oline about Stretch, The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude, by Neal Pollack it sounded like a pretty fun, lighthearted read. The folks at Harper Perennial were gracious enough to send me a review copy.

I enjoyed the book so much that I finished it in a couple of days.

The book follows Neal, an author in his thirties, who's pretty sure he's already peaked professionally and personally, as he sets out on a journey to find "his best self." He reluctantly takes up yoga with his wife, and slowly becomes fully immersed in the yoga culture.

Neal starts out as a rank beginner, always out of his league, but eventually graduates to fancy overseas yoga retreats, rubbing elbows with gurus, and a yoga marathon. (Did you know there were yoga marathons? Me neither.)

In a sea of clean living vegetarians, Neal overindulges in everything. His cynical musings about the new age-y navel gazing of the yoga community, (himself included,) were laugh out loud funny. (I should mention that I don't actually laugh out loud all that often.)

The takeaway from the book for me was the pretty unversal experience of searching for something. In an unlikely ending, Neal eventually does find what he's looking for, but manages to never take himself too seriously.

I should mention in the interest of full disclosure that the book does contain a good bit of profanity and crass humor.

Disclosure: I was provided with a review copy of the book from the publisher, in hopes that I'd review it. No other compensation was provided, and the opinions expressed are my own.